The Hindu Business Line : Textile mills cry foul over TNEB fiat

Coimbatore, July 22 The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA), Coimbatore, has cried foul over the reported diktat of the TNEB to the mills ‘not to draw power’ from the grid between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. daily, which is in addition to the two-hour daily power cut imposed by the board.

It fears that such a severe power cut would lead to a minimum of 36 per cent capacity utilisation loss, making a crushing financial impact on the mills. It also wants the Government to enforce the originally planned power cut uniformly across the State.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Dr K.V. Srinivasan, Chairman, SIMA, said the Electricity Minister at a meeting held on July 18 with the industry associations and HT (high tension)/EHT (extra high tension) consumers, sought the cooperation of the industry for a 24-hour power holiday in a week and assured uninterrupted power supply for the remaining days. The Minister had also promised implementation of the Pune model — reimbursing the variable cost incurred by the industrial units for operating the idle gensets available with the industry and bridging the gap in supply and demand.

He said contrary to what was stated by the Minister, the textile mills in various parts of the State have received intimations from TNEB announcing two-hour shutdowns during the day and instructing mills not to draw power for four hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily, apart from adhering to the 24-hour power holiday in a week — thus totalling a minimum of 60 hours of power shut down every week. This would work out to minimum 36 per cent capacity utilisation loss, leading to large scale job losses and financial loss to the industry.

Dr Srinivasan pointed out that the Minister had said the Government would call for a meeting if the situation further worsens and would review the position. The textile mills in the State strongly protest against the “unilateral stand taken by TNEB by announcing 60 hours scheduled stoppage in addition to unscheduled power trippings, which have become a common phenomenon during the last three years”. He said for the first time in recent years such a serious power famine has hit the State, one which has come at a time when the industry was grappling with recession.

He contended that the power shortage was never distributed “uniformly across the State” and it was “unfair for the Government to give preferential treatment for the new investors and to sanction new connections, particularly for power-intensive projects while the State is facing such a serious and severe power shortage”.

The oil companies were rationing the supply of HSD Oil and restricted the quantity to 80 per cent of last year’s average consumption, which might meet only 10 working hours of gensets. The industry was left with no other alternative than to stop the operation for the remaining period leaving lakhs of people jobless, leading to industrial unrest. He appealed to the Chief Minister and the Electricity Minister to immediately take suitable steps to minimise the losses incurred by the industry, which was willing to co-operate with the Government in managing the situation “provided the Government comes out with a fair and transparent policy”.

Dr Srinivasan said more than 3,000 MW idle capacity is available with the industrial units and textile mills alone have over 1,000 MW captive power generating capacity. He stated that even one-third of the capacity would bridge the gap in the supply and demand and enable the Government to supply uninterrupted power.

While thanking the Government for considering implementation of the Pune Model in principle, he requested the Government to immediately take the following steps to save the industry: a) restrict power shutdown to 24 hours a week as promised by the Electricity Minister and ensure uninterrupted power supply during the remaining days by strictly distributing the power shortage uniformly across the State, including Chennai and multinational companies considering the abnormal situation; b) arrange for adequate supply of HSD oil and implement the Pune Model.

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